Summer Madness
by EtherealCrescent
Summary: It wasn't a getaway that he'd wanted, it had never been his choice... but in the end he was grateful. He'd never forget that summer. He'd never forget her. ..Rated for later chapters..
1. Chapter 1

Summer Madness

Chapter One: The Girl on the Second Floor

_A.N.: So I was listening to this instrumental called Summer Madness and it was just so relaxing and wonderful that I was influenced to write this. It'll be a somewhat short chapter story, no more than… um 10 chapters? I don't exactly know. I'll see how it goes._

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Summer Madness… though I wish I did. =C (ultimate sad-lip face)

..O..

All the times we had keep replaying in my head, her voice becoming that which makes up both my dreams and my nightmares, her laughter the only thing that gives me release even as it causes me pain.

_ "Oh… but I thought," her voice trailed off in to a whisper. I could see pain settling itself within her eyes. She didn't understand. "So you brought me here to say goodbye?"_

_"No Kagome... I brought you here because I want you to come with me."_

I remember everything as if it happened yesterday. I remember everything as if it was happening now. I'll never forget her and I'll never forget that summer. It changed my life.

..O..

Maybe it was because Inuyasha hadn't been there to aggravate me, because my entire family was out of the picture and because no one knew me that I was able to become more than I ever thought I could be. Or maybe it was because of what I know it was because of. It had really just been because of her…

Long story short, I'm no good—was_ no good, I'm sure she'd have had me correct myself_—or at least that's what everyone had always told me. They told me that I didn't appreciate what I'd been given, that I had no respect for others, that I didn't care about anyone but myself. And that was basically true. As far as I was concerned, the only people that I needed to respect were those who earned it and so far no one had. That wasn't my fault. It was theirs.

I guess I'd gotten into one too many fights or maybe messed around with the wrong man's daughter. The latter of the two seemed promising. I wish I could have been there when one of my father's associates brought that up but alas I'd never gotten the chance. I don't really know what the catalyst to my father casting me out for that summer was. It didn't matter either way. I still ended up alone in the city with barely enough money to last me. My father was adamant that I was supposed to be learning some sort of lesson. What exactly that lesson was, escapes my mind. The only lesson I'd planned on concerning myself with, was to teach them all that nothing would ever change me. That I didn't want to change. And at the time, I truly thought I didn't.

..O..

I got a place rather quickly. Mostly because after the third one I'd seen I realized that they weren't getting any better. It was small, and old, and a disgrace. But I figured it was a place to sleep and my father's bank account would more than make up for the hit on my pride when this waste of a summer was finally over.

The fourth morning I woke up I decided that I should probably start looking for a job. The only things I'd bought so far for my place was a mattress and comforter, a lamp, some towels for taking showers, and other bare necessities. Those things plus ordering out with my newly bought track phone for three days in a row had already put a small dent in the meager amount I'd been given. I figured out easily that the money might last me one third of the summer. At least I'd been allowed to take some of my clothes when they kicked me out. I was sure I'd have had no money by now if not.

I showered and got dressed quicker than I ever had that morning. It's amazing how much sooner things can get done when you don't have the distraction of a t.v. or computer. My eyes narrowed as I looked into the faded bathroom mirror. Pale skin, cold amber eyes, and a lip curled in distaste at my whereabouts reflected back at me. Running my fingers through my long silver locks, I acknowledged that nothing about me that they wished to change ever would by forcing me to live in a place like this. If anything, I'd probably come back worse, maybe I'd even do it on purpose. To see the look on my father's face would be nothing short of amusing.

My finger caught in a small knot, snapping me out of my thoughts and I frowned. A brush. That's one thing I forgot to buy. Turning on the tap and waiting a few moments for the stubborn water to find it's way through the pipes, I lowered my hands underneath the faucet, letting the cool water run through my fingers before running them through my strands. After braiding it, I looked back in the mirror. It would just have to do. I know I'd hire me.

Turning off all the lights in my apartment, I made my way towards the front door. Walking through my bare living room to get there, I could already hear some commotion going on from the other side of the wood, a female and a male's voice yelling. Cringing at the fact that I could even be living in a place with such people, I walked out into the hallway of my third floor apartment, shutting the door behind me, and with some difficulty getting the key to lock the door.

As I started walking down the steps, hands in my pockets, I could tell that the commotion was coming from the second floor. There was a large bang and then I could hear the girl yelling at the guy to leave.I heard the guy storm off and I continued to take my time. Whatever was going on downstairs wasn't any of my concern. As I turned the corner, I could see a girl picking herself up off the ground, brushing her clothes off. She glanced up at me and when her surprisingly striking azure eyes met mine, I couldn't stop my reaction, a slight arch of my eyebrow. I kept staring.

"Can I help you?" She asked, a slight aggravation edging her tone.

For a second, it managed to catch me off guard a bit but I recovered. "Excuse me?" I asked, my voice measured and cold like always.

"What do you think you're looking at?" She asked, her facial expression now taking on one of incredulity.

I scoffed and continued my way down the steps passing right by her. Turning my back and starting my way down towards the first floor. "Not much," I answered.

I could hear her mutter jerk under her breath and I smirked.

She was slightly entertaining, if not obviously a little off. No one ever talked to me like that, well besides my brother Inuyasha and he didn't really count. He was an idiot and had collected enough bruises and permanent scars over the years to prove that I didn't take well to being spoken to in any tone of disrespect. I knew for a fact, from experience, that I don't exactly give off a friendly vibe, nor do I mean to, but she didn't even seem fazed by it…

_Strange girl_, I allowed myself to think on her one more second before pushing her out of my mind. It was time to hit the pavement and absentmindedly I wondered where I'd soon be working. I figured it wouldn't take me long to find a job.

..O..

_Two weeks._

Two weeks had already gone by and I hadn't found a job yet. I'd gotten no call backs for interviews, been rushed out a few places even, and my money was steadily dwindling. I had just about enough to maybe last me another two weeks until I could get a paycheck, if I spent frugally. But that would mean I'd need to find a job today. It was getting ridiculous and if I was anyone else but myself I might have been getting worried. Instead, it was just managing to make me more irate.

The entire situation my father put me in was repulsing and making it that much harder for me to stay calm in my present situation.

"Do you have any references or referrals?" The convenience store owner asked me.

"To clean?" I asked evenly, trying hard to keep the ice out of my tone. This man couldn't be serious. I was already lowering myself in even_ considering_ to do something so demeaning. I'd already made up my mind that I'd continue searching for another job, one worth my time, after I got this one.

"He'll do fine Mr. Namura. I know him." I heard the voice coming from the back room, just before the blue eyed girl from the second floor of my building walked out. She was carrying some boxes, apparently getting ready to stock merchandise. She didn't even glance at me as she lied,"He lives in my apartment building, a good neighbor too. Give him a break."

The man, Mr. Namura the girl reminded me because I'd mentally been calling him a fool for the last 5 minutes or so, gave me another quick look up and down before tossing me an apron. "If you say so Higurashi. But know if he messes up, it's on you."

"I'm sure he won't," she answered back confidently while at the same time giving me a pointed look. I just arched a brow at her audacity.

"Higurashi here will show you the ropes… not that I have much for you to do anyway. Really you'll just be cleaning up and keeping everything in order. Higurashi handles most everything else. But she doesn't exactly have the knack for cleaning. The only female I know that doesn't," he said offhandedly as he stood up and turned from me. "I'll be back in my office if either of you needs me."

When I heard the door shut, I glared at her.

"Why'd you lie for me?" I asked. No one did anything for free. Everyone had their own reasons, and with the smiling sweet façade she put on, I gathered that she was probably no different.

"Wow, I was expecting a 'thank you for getting me a job Kagome' or something," she stated as she continued to line the shelves. "Paranoid much?"

"I don't know you and I definitely don't need any handouts from someone _like _you," I bit out.

At that she did turn around slightly, facing me over her shoulder. Her blues eyes taking on the same heated look from that morning in the hallway. I felt more comfortable with her looking at me like that rather than helping me. _I would never be anyone's charity case_. "Look, I'm hoping I didn't just make a mistake because I need my job and Mr. Namura would not hesitate in firing the both of us. I just stuck my neck out for you."

"I didn't ask you for anything."

"I didn't hear you turn down the job to his face either," she huffed before turning around. Her eyes glanced back at me momentarily and just as quickly as the heat had boiled her blue pools, they cooled and she sighed. "It wasn't charity okay… I just felt bad for taking my anger out on you the other day. I did it to ease my own guilt. It really had nothing to do with you."

She turned away from me again and I tried to remember if I'd voiced my 'charity case' thought aloud for a moment. In the end, I didn't say anything back but I didn't take off the apron and leave either.

Some time went by and she finished stocking the shelves, while I straightened up a few minor things.

"I'm kagome by the way… if you didn't catch me throwing my name in while I mocked you earlier." She muttered.

"Hn... I heard," I said as I went to go grab a broom. "Sesshoumaru," I decided to introduce myself in return. I would be working with her and she _would _be referring to me by name, although I probably would not be returning the favor.

"I wish I could say it was nice to meet you," she said smiling at me. "But honestly, I'd just be lying again." She laughed a little at her own words and I found them somewhat humorous myself. I definitely didn't consider meeting her anything close to being what I'd label as nice. I didn't even want to be around the girl but still… it seemed we could actually agree on _something._

I smirked.

..O..

_A.N: Don't forget to review. Let me know how you liked it so far, if you're intrigued and whatnot. =) I hope you are!_

_-E.C._


	2. Chapter 2

Summer Madness

Chapter Two: Wine Bottles and Locked Doors

_Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, Summer Madness, or Fruit Loops. =)_

_..O.._

I'd been working at the convenience store with the girl from my second floor apartment for a week. After the third day, I decided to give up looking for another job. This one, surprisingly, would pay pretty well and since I was charged with just cleaning up, I didn't have to have much contact with the customers like the girl did. It suited me in some ways. And besides, no kind of work could be demeaning if I was the one doing it.

The tarnished silver chimes hanging at the top of the door, broke the solemnity in the convenience store. Well as much as one could call my usual stoic quietness and the girl's curiously occasional groaning, solemnity. _What was she doing anyway?_

Sitting in a chair next to the register up front, I watched a man and a little boy, probably his son since they looked alike, walk in and down freezer aisle. Kagome was nowhere in sight, but I could still hear her making noises from somewhere down one of the aisles.

Only a moment passed before the man and the boy walked back up to the front and placed their items, a carton of orange juice and a jug of milk, on the counter.

The man stood in silence for a little while but I could feel him looking at me.

"We're ready to check out," he finally voiced, as if I couldn't already see that.

I ignored him in favor of calling for the girl. The convenience store was pretty small so I knew she could hear what was going on. It aggravated me that she hadn't come up front on her own.

"There's people up here waiting. Come do your job," I inform her, wherever she was and continued leaning back in my chair and relaxing, legs crossed.

"I—I'll be there in a minute!" I could hear her yell back at me. A minute went by a still nothing. The man kept staring at me. Wasn't I just relishing the fact that little contact with customers was a good thing for me?

"Couldn't you just-"

"I don't work the register," I cut the man off. He must have really needed that orange juice and milk, because he kept standing there, waiting… irritating me. I would have left two or three minutes ago if were him. Actually, I never would have set foot in a small rinky-dink convenience store like this in the first place.

He kept waiting.

I stomped down the urge to either grind my teeth or tap my foot impatiently. _What the hell was that girl doing? _I couldn't even continue to pretend I was relaxed anymore.

Getting up and ignoring the man's questioning look, I started walking past the aisles, my head snapping irately down each one as I looked for her.

When I found her she was standing on her tiptoes trying to keep some wine bottles from falling and doing a horrible job at it. At least four were close to toppling over. In her strain she was groaning—_the noises I'd heard earlier—_herblue skirt settled awkwardly on her hips, the white shirt under her apron looked rumpled and was rising up her back as she stretched her short frame so much. It would have been an amusing sight if I couldn't still feel the customer's eyes boring into my back.

"Go to the register," I demanded of her.

"Can you do it?" She asked groaning once more and shifting her body to try and catch one of the tilting bottles. "I'm kind of busy right now, _obviously_." She mumbled before blowing her black bangs out of her face in irritation.

I almost wished that I was one to roll my eyes. She was probably the one who made the foolish decision to put glass wine bottles on the top shelf in the first place. She was the only one who stocked the shelves and I learned quickly that besides coming at the end of the week to collect money and check merchandise, Mr. Namura could really care less. I'd been lucky that I came looking for a job the day he was there. Kagome was basically in charge. She even had a key to the store.

"No I cannot. You didn't bother to show me how to use the register and I do not get paid for doing your job anyway."

"Well can you at least come help me?" She asked, finally giving me a quick look over her shoulder. "If they fall they'll have to come out of my paycheck."

"Stocking is not a part of my job either."

Even as the words left my mouth I could see her weight shifting, her center of gravity growing unbalanced. It probably had something to do with the fact that she wasn't paying any attention to the wine bottles anymore. I guess glaring at me seemed more important at the moment.

Before the bottle could fall, I was there to catch it. Then I situated all the others upright before she could be thoughtless enough to let those fall too.

Backing away from the shelves, she began fixing her rumpled clothing. "Thanks," she said smiling as she dramatically stretched her aching limbs. "Nice catch."

"I just didn't wish to have to clean up after you," I assured her.

Unlike me, she _was_ one for rolling her eyes and she did it then. "Yeah whatever Sesshoumaru," she said, the smile never falling from her lips.

I scowled but it was wasted on the back of her head as she practically pranced out of the aisle, mid-length black hair bouncing. Before long I could hear her apologizing to the customer—for both herself _and me_, which I found increasingly displeasing—and the beeping sounds of the register. Not long after that I heard the chimes announce the customer's departure.

Running my fingers through my bangs, I started to make my way back towards the front, and what I'd claimed as my seat, to continuing relaxing when I heard something crash and shatter loudly behind me. Turning around, I took in the red and glassy mess flowing innocently across the convenience store floor.

The only thing I knew was that the wine bottle was _not _coming out of _my_ paycheck.

..O..

"Are you ready to go out for lunch?" Kagome asked me close to noon. Since it was just me and her, and neither of us was willing to go out to lunch anytime other than noon, she'd lock up the store for an hour and put up a sign while we went to eat. Well while I went to eat, and she somehow ended up at the same place that I was.

Today was no different. She seemed to be getting closer to whichever table I sat at as the days past too, I noticed. She was in the booth right next to mine, sitting on the opposite side so that if I looked up, I could see her face. Every time I looked, she was staring back at me.

I put down the fry I was getting ready to eat. "What?"

"Aren't you going to ask me to come sit with you?" She inquired, with a disgruntled look.

I didn't bother answering and I guess she took my silence as an invitation because soon she was sliding into my booth across from me.

It was quiet for a while but the happiness pouring off of her was stifling me.

"Why do you insist on following me every day?" I asked coldly.

"Because you're so attractive and mysterious that I can't help myself?" She said it more like a question than a statement. I'd heard something similar once, the other girl had actually been serious.

I merely blinked at her and she looked at me as if I'd grown another head.

"You can't be that arrogant!" She exclaimed loudly drawing the attention of a few other patrons though she didn't even seem to care. "I hope you know that was a joke. You're not bad looking or anything but I'll pass," she said absentmindedly, as if she hadn't just complimented and dismissed me, and then she took a bite of her turkey and swiss sandwich. "I just don't like eating alone… if I don't _have_ to," she added, her hand covering her mouth as she simultaneously talked and chewed. "Gheez… what kind of girls are you use to?"

_'Snobby and painfully boring rich girls that try too hard to get my attention,' _I thought inwardly_ 'Girls that would never have dismissed me like you. Girls that I have no problem using. ,'_ I added but decided not to mention that or her lack of manners. It was rather refreshing to not have to beat some hormonally driven female off with a stick.

"You have no reason to believe you don't have to eat alone," I stated, somewhat annoyed. "I prefer solitude if you have not noticed."

"Yeah… but no one would know you were keeping to yourself unless you were doing it around other people right?" She asked smiling at me. I tried not to notice the unruly breadcrumb resting casually on her pouty bottom lip."So I'll just eat with you and you can ignore me and show everyone how alone you like being."

I glared at her for a few silent moments, only to have her continue smiling obliviously back at me. I'd forgotten how for some reason she seemed immune to my unfriendly and off-putting vibes. Inwardly, I sighed with exasperation and then blanched at the fact that she was causing me any type of irritation at all. Her presence shouldn't have even mattered. If she wanted to sit with me and be ignored, it was none of my concern. I didn't care.

"You are a bothersome female," I answered as I picked up another fry.

"Right, and I can't be bothersome without being around other people too," she grinned before taking one of my fries, presumably playing up the bothersome role for all that it was worth. Sometime during lunch I watched her lick away that unruly breadcrumb.

..O..

That evening after I mopped and she counted the money, she locked up the store and we both walked back to the apartment complex. She walked somewhat ahead of me and I lagged behind on purpose, keeping my usually long-legged stride measured. We already spent enough time together as it was. I couldn't seem to get away from her.

She was opening her door as I continued to walk up the flight of stairs to the third floor. When she smiled at me—_she was really doing that far more than I wished her to… not that I wished her to at all, I added quickly inside my head_—I nodded slightly in return.

On the top floor I decided to have my customary struggle with my door. It was always hard to lock the door when I left in the morning, but I was damn near impossible to get it unlocked in the afternoon. This time it wasn't budging and then it seemed the key was stuck.

My jaw clenched and my eyes narrowed in frustration, I took a step back, trying to keep my composure before I fell into the tempting urge to punch something. And then she was squeezing in the tight space in front of me even though I hadn't even heard her come up the steps.

She angled and pulled at my door, her back nestled awkwardly into my chest because of our height differences. She rubbed against me as she pushed and wiggled incessantly.

Her unruly black hair shifted over her shoulders with her rhythmic movements and I realized it smelled like fruit loops. It was a weird thing to notice. I hadn't had fruit loops since I was a child and even then it was something that my younger brother had wanted. I never really liked the taste of sweet things but the smell wafting off of her didn't seem all that unpleasant.

Idly I wondered if I was thinking such pointless things to keep my mind off the fact that she was still pressed up against me or that I hadn't moved back.

The door opened up for her.

"You'll get it eventually. These locks are kind of stupid sometimes," she informed me turning around.

She was standing so close that I could almost feel her breathing. Those admittedly striking blue eyes blinked up at me and this close I also admitted that while she wasn't exactly gorgeous—_I'd had my share of gorgeous women, though they were usually as dense as they were attractive_—her eyes weren't even close to being her best feature.

"Do you want to come down to my place?"

"What?" I probably actually looked inquisitive when I asked, probably seemed surprised. She'd somehow caught me off guard again like the first time I met her. I didn't recover so well this time.

"You know, for dinner?" She asked me, raising an eyebrow curiously. "I don't like eating alone, remember?"

I quickly trained my facial expression back to one of indifference. Of course she meant eating. _What did I think she meant?_

"No. I'm fine," I answered evenly. I didn't want to eat with her. I didn't even want to be around her, I remembered.

"Okay then," she smiled and turned to walk back down the stairs. Her skirt wasn't resting awkwardly on her hips like this morning, I noticed. "The offer is still open for the next 30 minutes, if you change your mind. After that, I'm feeding my cats and going to sleep." She looked back at me.

"I won't change my mind," I informed her, turning away and taking one step inside my bare apartment.

"I know," I heard her answer just before I closed the door. "But just in case you do."

..O..

Later in the evening I ordered food and ate alone like I planned to.

That night I dreamt about cats and eating Fruit Loops. I hated cats… the Fruit Loops didn't taste so bad though.

..O..

_A.N: A little randomness there at the end because… well I like randomness lol and cause I tend to believe that weird dreams actually mean something. Anywho! Review if you're enjoying the story or if you're one of the people who knows about how I adore reviews. (Btw if you weren't one of those people before, you are now. **winky face** ) _

_Until next time._

_-E.C._


	3. Chapter 3

Summer Madness

Chapter Three: Her Left Shoe

_Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Summer Madness._

_..O.._

_"Shit-shit-shit!"_

I heard in the stairwell as I turned to lock my door heading for work. It was obviously _her_ voice, I'd learned over the past few days that being uncouth was just another peculiar oddity of Kagome's personality, and as I descended down the steps passing her widely flung open door, with her nowhere in sight, I could already tell that work might be rather interesting today. If I had to admit it, since I'd started working with her, I hadn't had a boring day yet. Rounding the corner, I continued down the steps.

"Hey!" The call echoed, bouncing down the walls from above as I was just a mere few moments from exiting the apartment complex. I could hear her apartment door shutting loudly and would have continued ignoring her if I hadn't cringed at what was yelled next.

"Sessho wait up!"

I _hated _that nickname, had made that known back from where I was from, had broken some unlucky guy's jaw for calling me it once. An overreaction? Probably. But I didn't break a sweat or regret it afterwards and it had gotten the message across.

That nickname was what my mother had called me when I was young before she and my father got divorced. When she left, moving overseas to model, that nickname left with her. When she came back years later, expecting to mend her relationship with the same kid she'd easily left behind, she found me instead and I found no need to mend anything.

Gazing up, I could see Kagome leaning over the banister looking down at me. Seeing that I'd stopped, she smiled and started rushing her way down the steps. When she started getting closer, I could see that she was wearing a loose yellow tank top and blue jeans, her black hair tied up in what was apparently a hastily done uneven ponytail. She was steadily muttering about running late and other things I paid no attention to. I waited until she jumped down the last three steps to interrupt her babbling.

"What did you just call me?" I asked coldly.

"Sess-Sesshoumaru," she heaved out, trying to catch her breath from running down the steps. Her hand lifted up and rested on my arm as she doubled over. "My god, you walk so fast!"

"That was _not _what you called me and I wasn't trying to wait for you," I remarked snidely, neatly removing her hand from my person.

"Don't be crazy, of course I called you Sesshoumaru," she said with a wave of that same hand, the daintily purple nail polished tipped appendage dismissing me as if I didn't know what I was talking about. "That is your name isn't it?" she asked sarcastically.

My eyes narrowed. I knew that she knew I heard what she said. She'd practically screamed it and the indiscreet half smile on her face, spoke of her games. Instead of playing, I turned to resume what I had been doing, pushing through the apartment door and stepping out into the sunlit street.

I could hear the creaking of the door opening and shutting once more after me as she quickly made her way to my side, black ponytail blowing in the summer breeze. "So, how was your morning?" She asked, seemingly oblivious that part of me not playing her game was in ignoring her. I didn't answer and without skipping a beat she started informing me about how her morning had went.

"Mine was insane!" She elaborated the comment with gestures, her hands splaying around in front of her face frantically. It made _her_look crazy, not her morning.

"First, I woke up late. Then, I realized I didn't have any coffee," she ticked off her many problems while counting them on her fingers, "I'm no good without my coffee by the way," she added looking up at me. "But you know what? That wasn't even the worse thing!" she exclaimed, continuing. "Chutes and Ladders got into my laundry last night! There were clothes all over the place which wouldn't have been so bad had they not been in pieces! It was like they had a vendetta against my underwear! " She scowled hard, exasperation clearly written on her face.

"Chutes… and Ladders?" I couldn't stop myself from questioning, especially sense my mind had decided to either focus on that or the underwear statement.

"My cats," she answered inattentively, the scowl still on her face.

I arched a brow, she would name cats something so entirely random. I wondered if she was envisioning cleaning up the mess they'd made. I remembered Mr. Namura saying she didn't have a knack for it.

Without warning she sighed and her scowl smoothed over into a smile. Too quick, that the emotional shift was perplexing. Her mood shifts making her seem just as crazy as her rapid hand gestures had.

"I do love those fur balls though. I don't know what I'd do without them," she said before blinking up at me. "Do you like cats?" she asked.

"No." I answered, and then remembered that I was supposed to be ignoring her. She was nearly impossible to ignore, she talked so much. I sped my steps up a bit.

She adjusted to my increased speed.

"If I didn't know any better I'd think you were trying to get away from me," she said jokingly, her glistening blues reflecting the sunlight. I looked at her from the corner of my eye and in response, intentionally made my strides a little wider.

"Hey!" she yelled and laughed, before increasing her speed to match mine again. Her rather long legs in comparison to other females were still far shorter than my own. It was amusing how frantically they worked to fill in the gap between us. "Stop that you jerk. We're both going to the same place anyway."

Curiously wanting to see how far she'd push herself, I increased my pace once more and she basically began jogging. The thought that I might actually be playing around, never once crossed my mind.

"I won't let you get aw—

Trying to step up on a curb, she nearly tripped, her left shoe flying off into the street, her words simultaneously tripping on her lips. I caught her by the arm before she could hurt herself, but I couldn't keep the grin from spreading over my face either.

I pulled her up until she was standing on lopsided feet, one foot clad in her remaining shoe, the other in a lime green sock. Her hands rested on her hips indignantly as she gazed up at me taking in my expression.

"It's nice to see you smiling and all but that was so _not_ funny," she pouted, her eyebrows drawing together though it looked like she was holding back her own smile, like she was trying not to laugh at herself.

"It kind of was," I answered, shrugging my shoulders. With the smirk still on my face I pointed to the street where her left shoe still lay abandoned. She hobbled over and got it. My grin grew wider.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up _Sessho_," she emphasized the nickname, smiling mischievously up at me as she bent down to put on and lace up her shoe.

"I'll remember you said that the next time you trip," I warned her, "Perhaps I'll let you fall."

"I'd be willing to bet that you wouldn't," she mocked, finishing up the bow. "I believe that's the second time you've rescued me Sessho."

Tensing at both at her repeated use of that nickname and at her insinuation, I scowled. I was not one tocome to _anyone's _"rescue".

"I just didn't wish to clean up after you," I reiterated, referring to the wine bottle incident that she was apparently counting in her misguided tally of being saved.

"And what's your excuse this time?" She asked, finally standing up and brushing herself off.

I merely scoffed and looked away. And she started along like nothing had ever happened. We both continued walking towards the convenience store. My strides staying measured this time, as she carried on walking at my side.

The whole time she never stopped talking about this and that, and though I vaguely listened, the crease in my brow never faltered.

Even when we'd made it there, I still hadn't figured out the answer to her question. _What had been my excuse for helping her this time?_

..O..

Mr. Namura was at the store when we arrived. It was Friday, payday, and the day that new merchandise came to the store. He wasn't there for long, merely checked around to make sure nothing was amiss—he didn't seem to notice the one less wine bottle from what Kagome had recorded we'd sold and neither Kagome nor I said anything about it, and after he was done, he handed us our pay and left.

I was pleased to find out we got paid in cash. It would be better that way. When I finally ended the summer and left this place behind, there would be no evidence I'd even worked here at all and that was the way I wanted it.

"Here's your apron," Kagome stated just as she was tossing it at me. I caught it effortlessly but I was sure she was hoping that I wouldn't have by the disappointed look on her face.

Pulling it over my head and tying it around my back, I glared at her, "You play entirely too much, what are you a child?"

She shrugged, "I very well have to do _something_ to keep us both entertained since you're such a stick in the mud," she teased, walking over to drag a box from the back over to the aisles. "I thought when Mr. Namura hired you I'd actually have someone to talk to for a change."

"Hn," was all I said in return, as I got up and picked up a few boxes of my own and walking them over. I assured myself that it was not because she was struggling or anything… just because I hated watching someone look like such a weakling.

"I could have gotten those you know," she assured me with a huff, as I set them down in front of her.

"I'm sure," I mocked, eyebrow raised.

She bent down and started opening up the boxes.

"How long have you been working here?" I asked, looking down the aisle towards the front of the store. When more than a few seconds passed and she didn't say anything, my eyes lowered to where she was seated on the floor.

She was looking at me with a bewildered expression on her face.

"What?" I asked annoyed.

"I think that's the first real question you've asked me," she said, turning back to the box and taking out a few bags as she started stocking the bottom shelf. "I believe that means we're making progress."

"I don't really care, it was just a question." I said looking away from her.

"I'm sure," she answered back.

I was tempted to think she was mocking me like I had her earlier but there was a smile that was hidden in the tone of her voice as she'd said the words and I found myself uneasy because of the pleased feeling that tone was creating in me. I fervently ignored it.

I could admit that she wasn't unattractive, perhaps even beautiful, and she could even manage to keep my attention for longer than a few minutes unlike many of the snobs that yearned for my attention back home. But she was also moody, too playful for my tastes, lacking in manners, quirky—_I was sure I'd never even thought that word before I'd met her_—eccentric even, and most importantly not of the same social status as I was, not even from the same world, as far as I was concerned.

And although it had become more than obvious to me, especially after this morning, that I did find her _interesting_, I could never allow myself to become_ interested_ in her. I would have never even talked to someone like her had it not been for this hellish summer.

And that was another thing. After this summer was over, I would be leaving her behind without a second thought, just like this job and that damn apartment. This whole experience would be forgotten to me and that's the way it was supposed to be, how I'd originally planned for it to come to an end from the moment it began.

Her smiling voice broke through my thoughts as she answered my question.

"I haven't been here that long actually… I mean longer than I usually stay at any job. I've been here five months but probably wont be that much longer. I like to move around a lot, only within the city, but I can't take staying still too long, you know?" She asked.

No, I honestly did not know. I hated change, hated moving around and hated anyone telling me that I needed to do anything I didn't want to. I'm sure that it was part of the reason why I'd been casted out for the summer. Because I'd graduated at the top of my class over three years ago and still I didn't wish to learn about how to take over my father's company, had no interest in it, didn't want to have to change myself in order to fit into my father's neat expectations of me. He always said that I didn't respect what I'd be given, but I did not even want it.

Change is why I was here this summer in the first place. For me to see what life would be like without my father's wealth, without the money and luxury I was use to. He wanted to break me, change my cruel and uncaring ways and force me into wanting to take over the company. But I didn't need any change. I didn't need _to be_ changed.

She didn't seem to notice when I didn't say anything back. In fact, she looked as if she'd fallen deeply into contemplation herself, facial features still and controlled. Glancing down at her she almost seemed to look as melancholy and bothered as I felt. I wondered what exactly it was that was muting down the vibrant irises of her pools of blue.

I bent down and opened up another box, taking out items to stock on the higher shelves and proceeded to do so. It didn't take long for one of her mood shifts to take affect and then she was back to smiling and teasing and cursing when she dropped something on her foot.

I found myself talking back, mocking or teasing her sometimes too—if I decided not to give her one of my customary glares—and smirking when she'd dropped the _'goddamned'_ jar on her foot, though I did offer her a shoulder in support as she limped around trying to prove to me that it was '_definitely broken'_. It was not, of course.

I didn't seem to notice that when her mood had recovered, mine had as well.

...

_A.N. I use to have two fish that I named "Chutes" and "Andladders". The same day I got them they jumped out of their bowl in the middle of the night... found them in the morning... X_X crazy fish._

_But anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Especially Sess playing around with Kagome (even if he didn't know he was). I liked that part =)._

_Leave me some reviews dearies! They keep me motivated and whatnot._

_-E.C._


	4. Chapter 4

Summer Madness

Chapter Four: Fiery Eyed Sunsets

_Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or the song Summer Madness._

_..O.._

"Please."

"No, stop asking," I basically growled at her for the tenth or eleventh time, I'd lost count. Kagome had been asking me since lunch, and I was starting to become more than just a little aggravated. It was times like this that I wondered how she could stay so relaxed under my glare when no one else I'd ever met could. She could be so infuriating.

"But why?" she was almost whining.

"You are not touching my hair," I informed her with finality. I'd for some unknown reason taken out my braid when she'd asked me to earlier on in the day and she was spending the time since making me sourly regret it. What was it with females and long hair? It was the only thing she seemed to have in common with the girls I knew from back home. But I never let anyone touch my hair.

"Fine," she pouted slightly before making her way back over to the boxes of merchandise that we had stopped stocking because of customers and later because we'd gone to lunch. "Your hair's not that great anyway," she mumbled and I rolled my eyes, moving forward to help her stock before remembering that I _don't _roll my eyes. My lip curled in distaste, her uncouthness was apparently contagious, I frowned.

We were putting up some more of the merchandise, when her strained and angry voice broke through the comfortable silence we'd been working in.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me."

The words took me by surprise and I looked down at her only to see her looking towards the front of the store, her hands balled up into fists. I heard the tarnished chimes of the door announcing someone's entry into the store and she was getting up quickly and stomping down the aisle towards the noise. Her black ponytail was swinging widely with determination.

"I'll be right back," she said over her shoulder, the anger leaving her face for only a moment as she informed me. I merely raised a brow in curiosity. I'd seen this side of her once before but had not seen it so strongly since the first time I'd met her in the stairwell of our building.

I could hear her yelling at someone I couldn't see from where I was in the aisle. She must have seen who it was as the person walked by the front of the store before entering.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here? Better yet, I don't even care. Just get out."

Her voice that could sound kind or frantic, child-like or sweet, sounded serious and strong, the fire in her tone igniting. It was impressive.

"You think you can talk to me like that?"

The deep baritone of a male's voice responded back to her angrily and then I could hear a louder commotion, a shuffling of feet. The chimes on the door were sounding out loudly and then I could see her and the male on the other side of the glass that made up the front of the store. She had obviously pushed him out.

She was still yelling, pointing at him with an accusing finger but I could no longer hear what was said. Her mouth moved in silent screams.

He was yelling back at her and I saw her cross her arms in front of her body and cock her hip as she glared at him.

I was feeling something like pride seeing as the glare she leveled him with distinctly reminded me of one my own. But when she tried to brush by him, presumably to come back into the store, he reached out and grabbed her arm, yanking her back towards him.

At that, my hands clenched tightly at my sides, anger clouding over my vision. I had never been in any sense of the word a 'casanova', nothing like a knight in shining armor, but I had never put my hands on a female either.

I was struck with the overwhelming urge to go and rip the male's arm off of her and was about to move and do exactly that until I remembered that I'd also never cared how others guys handled females. It _should _have been be none of my business. I gazed away, silently taken aback by the intense feelings of possessiveness that had boiled inside me, the need I'd felt to go and protect Kagome.

'It did not concern me.' I remembered thinking that the day I first came face to face with the fiery blue eyed girl on the second floor. She had been arguing with some male that day too and I'd felt no need to come to her aid. Now that I thought about it, the voice of the male outside did resonate as vaguely familiar.

…Now that I thought about it, I could recall that when I'd turned the corner that morning, coming down the steps, she'd been picking herself up off the stairwell floor. _Had she been pushed down? _The thought had my eyes glaring back towards the front of the store of their own accord but already Kagome was alone. The male having already stormed away.

She looked as though she was trying to calm down, her eyes closed, as she took a deep breath. I trained in my own anger and the tension I still felt in my body, and continued stocking items.

When she finally walked back in coming towards me, my face was again a mask of indifference.

"Who was that?" I asked, voice calm, feigning disinterest.

"No one important," was all she said about the matter but for the rest of the afternoon she did not smile as freely as usual. Even though I tried to ignore it, it bothered me.

It bothered me even more that she did not invite me to dinner as she did every night after we'd walked back to the apartment complex. It had become how every night ended. It was something that it seemed I'd grown accustomed to and did not wish to change.

I would have still said no, but it felt wrong that she did not even ask.

_..O.._

The next day she made up for it. It was Saturday and I had not been expecting to see her until work on Monday.

"Come out with me."

I looked down at the girl clad in a white and green "Kiss Me I'm Irish" T-shirt and dark battered blue jean shorts. Her flip flops didn't match and she had blue sunglasses sitting atop her head, a short slightly gnawed pencil stuck stubbornly behind one ear. Something told me that _she_ didn't even know what the pencil for.

"Why?" I asked apathetically.

"Because it's sunny outside and we luckily don't work weekends," she said excited.

"…And?"

Her eyes narrowed and considered me carefully, as if sizing me up to gather the perfect answer. I was looking forward to what nonsense she would come up with but then she shrugged her shoulders leisurely. It was a wordless 'I don't know'.

"What else are you going to do?" She inquired idly.

The question rang true. The knock on my door had stirred me from the dreary monotonous boredom I'd been stewing in since I'd woken up that morning. The day had dragged itself on limping limbs until four in the afternoon, and with every minute that passed it only seemed to start going by even slower.

I knew it couldn't have been anyone but her since she was the only person I'd met besides our landlord who knew where I was living, and still I'd answered the door. Though at the time, I would have even answered the door for my brother Inuyasha.

I stared at her.

"Oh come on! I'm bored and obviously you are too," she said, looking past me and into my still mostly bare living room. "What do you even _do_ in there? Watch the paint chip?"

I was almost tempted to say yes but instead gave a small inward sigh of defeat. I could not deny that I really did not have anything to do and I disliked being bored. It wouldn't have been long before I actively started to chip paint away from the walls myself. I already spent most of my days with her, I decided one more would not change anything. And besides she seemed to be a repellant against boredom.

Eyeing her, I entertained the idea that maybe she had sized me up like I thought she had. She'd found the perfect thing to say after all.

"Where would we be going?" I asked, in a tone that belied only annoyed exasperation.

The large smile that lit up her face in response was _almost_ worth giving her the victory.

"Just around. I'll braid your hair for you before we go." She stated after a moment, looking hopeful.

I scowled.

"No."

"Eh… it was worth a try. I thought I was on a roll."

..O..

"So what's your deal anyway?" She asked, waiting in the vendor's line for ice cream. We'd been walking around the city for a while now. It honestly was a relaxing summer day.

"My deal?" I asked, arching a brow.

"You know, your deal. What's your story? Where are you from?" She reiterated, pulling the blue sunglasses from atop her head and positioning them over her eyes to block out the sun. The shades were too big for her face and gave her the distinct look of being an overgrown bug. If I didn't know any better I would have thought it endearing… perhaps even cute. "I haven't really asked anything about you," she added.

"I do not have much of a story. I just moved here," I answered, not wishing to delve into my past with her.

"Hmm… and you're not going to ask about mine?" She inquired after a moment.

"No," I answered, looking away and staring at the few trees that remained in the sea of cement that made up the city. "Why would I?"

She didn't answer but she'd reached the front of the line and ordered two sundaes. I'd already told her I did not want anything before she'd even gotten into the line in the first place.

After the sundaes were made, she handed one of them to me as we walked. I took it and waited until we came upon the next trashcan to throw it away.

"You're so rude," she admonished.

"And you're still bothersome," I rebuked.

She looked at me. At least I thought she was looking at me, the sunglasses were dark and I could not see her eyes, but it seemed as though she was considering something.

"There's this place I haven't gone to in a while," she started and I got the distinct feeling she was fidgeting beneath her skin. "I usually go there on nice days like this. Do you care if we go?"

She seemed nervous for some reason and it was prickling at my senses. I didn't like it.

"It makes no difference to me. You already have me out here anyway," I replied not looking at her. Her nervousness ebbed away. I felt more relaxed as well.

..O..

It was already close to sunset when we came upon a building. It looked far nicer than most of the ones in the city and she entered it as if it was her home. I followed.

We rode the elevator all the way up and she was still not explaining herself or saying anything. When we made it to the top, she walked over to a flight of steps that led even further up, she took out a key when we reached the top of them and unlocked a door. The darkly orange tinted sun met us on the other side of it. We were on a roof top.

I arched a brow at her. "How do you have the keys to the roof of this building?" I couldn't feign disinterest because I was actually curious.

"I use to live here," was all she said.

She walked over towards the edge of the building, placing her hands up on the ledge, and gazed outwards towards the sunset and across the city.

After a moment, I walked over beside her but she didn't even seem to notice me.

"I love this place," she basically sighed and I could tell that she wasn't talking to me when she said it.

I watched her take off her sunglasses and place them on the ledge too. She closed her eyes and a summer breeze whipped through her onyx hair as if it knew that's what she'd wanted. She smiled, her eyes still closed, and she looked peaceful. I hadn't noticed that she'd never looked that way before until now.

The sun continued to beat down on her skin, even as it lowered towards the horizon. I did not watch the sunset. I watched her.

"I'm glad you didn't mind coming here," she said quietly, opening up her eyes and glancing over towards me. "I haven't gotten the urge to come up here in a while but when I do I can never stop myself." She paused for a second, thinking. "Remember how I told you I like moving around?"

I merely nodded.

"Well this is the only place I can't leave behind."She was looking off towards the city again. "It's the reason why I can't leave this city."

I wanted to ask her why she was saying any of this. Why she brought me here and why she felt the need to tell me anything but she kept talking and for some reason I was averse to interrupting her. It felt like I'd be interrupting the flow of the wind, or the sun from falling in the evening the sky.

"I lived here with my family, me and my parents and my little brother," she said, "Me and my brother found the key to this rooftop. I guess some maintenance man dropped it… I still don't really know but… we use to love to sneak up here," she was smiling softly at some distant memory she was reliving before it faded away.

"They died and I was up here," she paused, her hands clenching nothing above the brick ledge. "I don't even remember why I wasn't with them… it was just a car accident, you know?… So common… but sometimes when I'm up here it's almost like… like I haven't lost them yet, like I didn't have to grow up so fast and take care of myself."

Her blue eyes found their way back to my amber ones. "I wish they were still alive…" she said gently. " And I know that sounds stupid. Of course I wish they were but… I just-"

I couldn't stop myself from thinking of my own family. The mother that left me, the father who remarried the woman he'd cheated with. He was the same father who had another son and promptly forgot about his first. He had been rearing Inuyasha to take over his company from birth, not me. I was left in the background. It wasn't until Inuyasha started getting older that everyone realized there was a problem, that he couldn't help his short attention span, his bouts of anger, his dyslexia, the list went on and on. It wasn't until then that my father started looking at me again. It was almost sickening how quick he'd turned his back on Inuyasha too. But I had already turned my back on all of them.

"Families do not have to die for you to lose them," I said evenly, looking away from her eyes. I could tell that she understood, that she knew I was speaking from experience. I looked back at her."So perhaps you do not have to lose them when they die either."

She nodded slightly and we were both quiet as we watched the last of the sunset. By now the sun was nearly blanketed from our view.

"Thanks," she whispered, just as the last sliver of light fell behind the curve of the earth. When the sky was merely wisps of oranges and red, we left.

..O..

Kagome knocked on my door later that night. She was dressed up, wearing a tight black skirt, a taupe lace shirt, and nude heels. Her hair was lightly curled and down, running over her exposed creamy skin, and she was wearing a tad bit of makeup. I'd never seen her look like this.

"My two friends are coming to pick me up in around an hour and I was wondering if you wanted to come too," she seemed back to her default cheery self so I figured I could be back to my old self too.

"No."

I started to close the door but she stuck her blue nail-polished heeled foot inside my apartment.

"I'll make a deal with you," she said as she smiled up at me like she wasn't being a nuisance.

I scowled at her darkly.

"If you come," she continued, "I'll stop asking to play with your hair."

One night with her, her two friends, and all the alcohol I could consume to ignore them...

It would be worth it.

...

_A.N. This story keeps getting updated because my muse insists. Three cheers for not fighting my muse for once?_

_Reviews? :3... Reviews! XD_

_Let me know if you like how the story is going. Going to the club in the next chappie, but this is Sessh so we shouldn't expect too much right...?_

_I have no idea O_O 3_

_-E.C._


	5. Chapter 5

Summer Madness

Chapter 5: She becomes the Melody

_A.N: This chapter ended up going in a whole other direction than I originally thought it would haha. And I think I heart it. (:_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Summer Madness._

..O..

The club was like any other club. Dark, colored lights flashing, loud music, and filled with people who were probably wastes of space and drunk on alcohol. I headed for the bar. Kagome's male friend did too.

Kagome and the girl she introduced earlier as Sango, went in another direction.

"What?" I finally asked the guy named Miroku with a glare as I watched the two girls grab some drinks on the other side of the bar before scrambling off to the dance floor.

He'd been looking at me strangely since Kagome introduced us back at the apartment and now that he was sitting down next to me, I wasn't going to allow it any longer. I had only been being tolerant of him for Kagome's sake although now that I realized that, I couldn't exactly understand why I would. I didn't usually do anything for anyone else's benefit… even if she had asked me to.

He laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Sorry, it's just… it isn't often that Kagome intentionally introduces me or Sango to anyone. It usually happens by accident, if we somehow end up at the same place that she's at with her fleeting friends," He explained offhandedly. "And even then she tries to keep us separate from them," he said before calling the bartender over to us. He ordered a beer and I, a Bulliet Neat, the glass of basically just bourbon being one of my favorites.

The bartender stepped away to get them.

"Fleeting friends?" I questioned, my facial expression blank except for my incredulously quirked brow. What nonsense was he even talking about?

Miroku shrugged.

"That's just what Sango and I call them since there's really no point in learning their names. They're the temporary people—" he stopped when the bartender pushed us our drinks. We both paid for our respective ones and I requested that I be given another one when I finished.

He continued after taking a swig of his drink.

"Like I was saying, they're just the people she associates with to go along with her constantly fleeting residences and jobs. I guess you could call them her fleeting lives even," he said, as a melancholy expression washed over his features as he spoke of it. "She doesn't tend to stay close to any of the temporary people when she moves. Sometimes she doesn't even tell them." He took another swig of his beer and I could tell that he was concerned by his Kagome's supposed behavior. Rather than getting sucked into that I angled to shift his attention.

"You are contradicting yourself, are you and Sango not her true friends?"

He didn't even have to think when he answered, tipping the neck of his beer towards me "Ah… yes, but even we do not always know how to remain in contact with her," he said before adding. "And we've been around since before… _it _happened." He looked like he was unsure if he should've said what he had.

"Her family's deaths." I guessed.

Miroku looked startled. "She spoke of it to you?"

"On her old rooftop, earlier this evening." I answered dismissively, taking a sip of my drink. I was trying not to remember how I hadn't been so dismissive up on the roof, trying not to remember how I'd partially let her in myself, alluding to my past in response to learning some of hers.

"You must really mean something to her then."

I scoffed, "I cannot see why, I did not ask for her to tell me anything. I did not even wish to be her friend… I'm not sure I even consider myself one," I informed the over-idealizing man, before taking another decent-sized swallow of my drink and continuing. "In the beginning I think she was just purely finding pleasure in annoying the hell out of me."

Miroku laughed heartily.

"I guess she would be good at that, Kagome has always been a good judge of character. And with her… _quirks,_ she'd probably be good at knowing what to do to get under someone's skin," he said casually.

I said nothing back to that and he looked as if he was trying to figure out something, drinking his beer slowly and staring off towards the dance floor. I continued to drink my bourbon and ignore him.

"Well I think that's it then," he finally said turning back to me and nodding, after coming to some conclusion that I did not ask to hear of. "It's because you don't want to be her friend that she's letting you in. Although, I doubt she knows she's_ actually_ letting you get close… she's been faking friendships for so long."

"You continue to make no sense," I said. This man was slightly aggravating, though I did honestly get along better with him than most. "Why would anyone do that?"

"I'm surprised you haven't figured that out yet."

I narrowed my eyes but gave him no response and he continued on, voice quiet and tense as if he was revealing a secret. I could barely hear him over the music.

"She avoids getting truly attached to anyone," he stated, "I think she's afraid she'll lose someone else like she lost her family."

I interrupted him, "If that were the truth she would just avoid people altogether," I challenged.

"No, she could never do that. She's always been a people person… she can't stand being alone," he answered assuredly, "So she does the only thing she can do. She makes fake friends, never really letting them in. Then when she starts feeling too comfortable, like everything's going right, she moves and starts the whole cycle over again."

He scowled a little, glancing down at the bottle gripped in his hands and I inwardly thought about the day that she informed me she didn't like eating by herself. She was willing to sit there and be ignored. I supposed she probably would not avoid people altogether.

Miroku continued. "She's even settled for only dating guys that treat her like shit to not get too close. Maybe she doesn't notice it but Sango hates it… I do too, " he stopped for a moment and I remembered the male who she'd argued with outside the store the day before as well as the way he'd grabbed her arm. My fingers unconsciously clenched tighter around the glass in my hand.

Miroku looked at me curiously, before pressing on further. "She probably doesn't consider you a threat, since you don't even want to get attached to her. You're like someone she doesn't have to worry about getting too comfortable around. It's probably a breath a fresh air, I'm sure."

He was finally finished and after I didn't say much about it, he switched the subject to something else. Talking, I found him to not be too unbearable, perhaps even good company. We kept ordering drinks but I was privately still considering what he'd said about Kagome though I didn't comment on it.

Maybe, it did make some peculiar sort of sense. I'd wondered why she never flinched under the weight of glares on more than one occasion. Glares that since I'd met her had become less frequent. If what he said were true, I supposed that my standoffish behavior would be almost welcoming to her. Ironically, it seemed that the more that I'd tried to push her away the more comfortable she'd felt like she could be with me.

After a good deal of time, Kagome and Sango came back over towards us. Miroku and I spun around on our bar stools to face them as they approached. After talking for a few minutes Sango asked Miroku if he wanted to dance with her. And when he agreed, grinning like he'd just won the lottery, they got up and left for the dance floor. That left me and Kagome alone.

"I hope you've been having fun," she stated looking down at me, "I just thought you needed to get out more. You know, to give the paint chips a break from your excessive glaring." She smiled, the action lighting up her face. She'd had to tilt forward and speak loudly over the blaring music and with the close proximity, I could tell she'd evidently had more than just the one drink I saw her get earlier. Her eyes were glazed over but she still managed to look about the same as she had when we first arrived. I was slightly impressed, I hated when people looked disheveled after drinking.

I smirked at her joke.

"The night has been… tolerable," I informed her honestly after considering it. "And though I'm sure the paint is relieved, I'm only concerned with you remembering our deal."

Her smile grew bigger at that and when she moved I thought that she might be moving to sit down and continue conversing to me but instead she merely leaned closer to whisper in my ear.

"Dance with me," she said before slowly pulling back, gazing down at me with shining eyes as I continued to sit on the bar stool.

"I don't dance," I responded shortly though it was not precisely true. I did dance rarely, when I had an underlying agenda, an underhanded motive to. I did not have one with the girl standing in front of me. This was Kagome, not one of the females I considered a conquest, though my reasons for why not were starting to make less sense to me. I hadn't thought of her social status, of her as being beneath me for quite some time.

Her smile grew brazen before replying.

"Everyone dances," she informed me wistfully, before taking the drink out of my hand, _it amazed me how easily I allowed it to slip from my fingers_, and downing it. She set the empty glass down on the bar counter behind me before backing away towards the dance floor and simultaneously swaying her hips.

"You know you want to," she mouthed, a large grin on her face, as she continued to move further away from me. She broke eye contact and started dancing by herself once she reached the dance floor. The lights in the club continued to flicker over her form as I watched her.

Her eyes were closed as her body swayed and moved, her hands running across her own skin. I watched her palms roam over the tight black skirt stretched over her hips before gliding up the sides of her lace covered waist and chest.

Her body moved rhythmically and perfectly with the music as if she were a part of the melody, as if the song was made for her and she was only sharing it with the world, with whoever had the fortune to hear it. It was… sensual and erotic, another side of her that I had not yet seen. She seemed so different from the girl I worked with at the store or the one I'd met on the rooftop.

She moved as if she was in a trance, I watched as if I were in as well.

She had so many sides to her. She was a puzzle never meant to be solved and I was a person that did not like leaving things unfinished. Only the small wistful smile on her lips was left to remind you that she was not a true vixen, a temptress.

And then her eyes were opening and she was stopping, the smile slipping off her face. When she stopped dancing the song might as well have stopped playing too.

A male was trying to dance with her. His lips moved strangely as if alcohol had taken away the fluid use of his mouth and I could not make out what he said. But I could see his gaze fixed on her creamy flesh and her shake her head no politely though I'd seen the spit-fire she could have been. I watched as he continued to try and grab her anyway.

But I was grabbing her waist instead. I had not noticed that I'd even left my seat, much less that I'd moved towards her.

"Let's dance then," I said evenly looking down at her. The music seemed so much louder on the dance floor and it was drowning out most of my thoughts on what I was doing.

She smiled slightly at me, the lids of her eyes lowering, and I offered the other guy nothing more than a fleeting glance from the corner of my eye as we moved away, back into a dark corner of the room on the dance floor.

Her arms moved slow but strangely still managed to waste no time in raising and encircling my neck.

As we started dancing, the song in the background did not matter.

"I thought you didn't dance," she stated lowly, looking up at me. Thick sooty eyelashes blocked away some of the blue of her eyes and the part that could be seen flickered in the colored strobe lights. There was a mirthful tint to her tone that contradicted with her lust filled gaze and her body's motions as it moved over mine, grazed against me languidly.

I knew this dance.

"I thought you said you'd pass." I whispered in her ear conspirationally. The music pounding in my ears and the heavy press of her hips was making me reckless. I was never reckless and it wasn't until this moment that I realized I must have felt something else about her dismissing me that day at lunch.

Her arms fell from around my neck and she turned away from me slowly, started sliding her body over mine, first down and then back up again.

"Arrogance looks good on you Sessho but this is just a dance," she said a sensual smirk tugging on her lips. I couldn't tell if she was aware or not that she was lying. "Besides the guys I date make you look like a saint," she added as her eyes fluttered shut, her head rested back on my shoulder, her hips still swayed against me to the beat.

Perhaps the bourbon was helping to cloud my judgment, but I took what she said as a challenge, lowering my hands from her waist to glide over her hips.

"That just proves how much you do not know me," I answered, my voice was unnaturally rough and I leaned down, letting my warm breath run over her neck. Her head lolled more to the side, her hair slipping over her shoulder, opening up the expanse of her throat more to my eyes.

I smirked.

But as quickly as she'd done that, she was turning around again and looking up at me. She was a vision. She looked dazed and open, vulnerable, but in a good way if that was possible, and she was leaning in far too close to me, her lips stopping only an inch away from mine. I could feel her hands reaching up and running through the hair at the nape of my neck but I didn't stop her.

"I don't think anyone really knows you Sessho," she whispered.

I wasn't expecting that but she was right. No one did know me and no one was ever suppose to though I let her in a little on that rooftop earlier in the day.

She didn't get attached to anyone and I didn't get attached to anyone either. I knew that was the truth of it but while she thrived on change, switching up the people she wouldn't allow herself to get attached to, I strived on keeping everything constant, usually refusing company, avoiding people altogether. Even when I dated, I wasn't dating, just sleeping around.

But now that I knew that no one really knew her either, to me it felt like she was making the comment to herself, like it was a plea for someone to try. Or maybe the words had even come out of my own mouth when I wasn't paying attention.

She was laughing lightly now but it strangely sounded more like she was crying in my ears and I didn't have an underhanded motive when I closed the space between our lips. I didn't know what my motive was because I'd already made up my mind that this, _us_, would never go anywhere, would never be anything beyond the summer. It wasn't even supposed to be anything _during _the summer. But still, I knew it wasn't underhanded. I wasn't being cold or cruel like usual.

In fact, her lips and tongue moving against mine were warm.

The fingers in the hair at the nape of my neck fisted and the hands I had on her hips clenched.

The music stopped.

It took us a few moments to do the same, but eventually we stopped too.

..O..

The night came to an end after our dance and we met back up with Miroku and Sango. Nothing really seemed different, we didn't behave any differently as Sango drove us back towards the apartment complex. Sango had only had the one drink I'd seen her get earlier on during the night.

Kagome was slightly more inebriated than I thought because she fell stepping out of the car. Bidding Miroku and Sango goodnight, I picked her up and carried her up the steps of our building. She rummaged through her purse and found her keys when I reached her door. She leaned over and opened it and I carried her inside.

Her apartment was the way I thought it would be. Her furniture did not match and the pictures on her walls shared no themes. It was messy but not dirty, almost cluttered really, and her two cats were watching me closely as I moved to lay her down on the green couch.

She asked me if I could take her to her bedroom.

Her apartment was made up like my own so I knew where it was and walked there.

Her bedroom was just as unfocused and random as the rest of the house.

Laying her down on the bed, I noticed she had way too many pillows, eight or nine, and some of them didn't even match her comforter. When I tried to move away, the hands wrapped around my neck did not let go.

"You let me fall," she whispered looking up at me, "…Outside, you let me fall. I guess I lost the bet huh?"

I let her words float around in my head a moment before answering.

"It was not on purpose," I admitted looking back down at her. "And I carried you. I'm pretty sure that equates to me coming to your rescue again. I think you won Kagome."

She smiled slightly but she didn't say anything back. Her bedroom, though filled with things, for some reason felt emptier than my bare one upstairs.

When she tugged lightly, I let her pull me towards her lips.

The kiss in the club had been soft and insistent but this one… though still supple, was full of need, almost desperate. Her tongue danced with mine in perfect rhythm just as we had danced earlier, the warmth from her lips, from our kiss, diffusing into the air around us.

Without the music blaring in my ears like earlier, I could not stop focusing on the sounds of our heavy breathing or the small moans that she released and I swallowed greedily.

A groan escaped my throat and the hands I had placed on the bed on either side of her head were clenching at her comforter. I could not even think. This felt… different than anything I'd ever felt before.

I'd never felt so… not in control.

I moved back, breaking the contact. Both of our eyes fluttered open.

"Stay," she whispered, pleaded breathlessly, but the octave of her voice said more than just that word. Her eyelids were lowered, her blue gaze hazed and her lips slightly parted and bruised. I knew what she wanted… because I wanted it too. The arms around my neck clung a little tighter.

I was tempted to. One part of my body, that was making itself increasingly known to me, was very tempted to. But then I licked my lips and they tasted like bourbon and whatever sweet drinks she'd been having. She was slightly intoxicated and I remembered that I was not being underhanded.

I didn't want to be for once.

I removed her arms from around my neck gentler than I knew I was capable of being.

"Not tonight," I said backing away from the bed and standing upright. I headed for the door. "Get some sleep," I added as I turned her light off before I closed her bedroom door. I didn't even wait to see if she was going to say something back. I left her place.

After I made it upstairs to my own apartment, laying down on my mattress, it hit me that I may not have just been leaving for her benefit. I did not know what I would have felt in the morning had I stayed either.

Right before I fell asleep, my mind whispered that I was afraid, that I was still trying to stay unattached but that I was already losing the battle. It said that I was running. It said that I was weak.

I chalked the words up to being a dream.

…

_A.N.: Hope you liked it!_

_And now to get back to studying ):_

_Don't forget to Review!_

_-E.C._


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